Page 81 - March EW PDF 24

humour. from Ireland), Edgar Ware bay, and curiosity about politics and missionar-
Based on his India (assistant commissioner of his curations and artwork. ies, colonial rulers with
journals, the novelistic res- Kurseong) make cameo ap- Though a fairly slow- retinues of native servants,
urrection of Edward Lear, pearances through Lear’s moving novel, the drama a world of adults as well as
the artist/protagonist, remembered interactions. lies in the novelist’s use innocent children. Sourav
takes a serendipitous path, Memories of childhood of the stream of con- Roy’s pen-sketches in
attempting to fill in gaps and adolescence creep in sciousness technique at imitation of Lear’s limerick
and silences, unravelling without notice — sister two levels. While depict- illustrations appear as
traumas and inadequacies Ann appears as a surrogate ing Lear, the artist who epigraphs to the chapters,
to revive innumerable half- mother, beloved Gussie as frequently relapses into reminding us of Lear’s
told stories. a much-desired compan- memory, limericks, imagi- popularity with children
The storyteller’s imagi- ion. nation, meditation, Roy — Anne and Manjoo’s ‘fa-
nation is easily ignited by The novel successfully excavates journal entries vouritest poem’ being ‘The
hints and clues while inter- recreates the material tex- about Lear’s experiences Owl and the Pussycat’.
acting with Brits and na- ture of Victorian life and that are intrinsic to the Finally, Edward Lear
tives in far-flung outposts culture through nuanced journey presented in the emerges not entirely as the
of the Empire, the hill-sta- quotations and refer- novel. This in-and-out con- Viceroy’s artist but as a
tions and dak bungalows. ences to Tennyson and his sciousness is structurally multi-talented personality
Influential characters like poetry, Hooker and his integrated through large whose popularity as the
Evelyn Baring (the vice- botanising in the eastern portions of the narrative by creator of British nonsense
roy’s secretary), Franklin Himalayas, Christina being inscribed in italics. verse, inspired a genre
Lushington (judge of the Rossetti and her ‘Goblin The Viceroy’s Artist is represented by Abol Tabol,
Supreme Court of justices Market’, Pre-Raphaelite not merely a novel, but Sukumar Ray’s classic
in the Ionian islands), painters Holman Hunt and a volume that at varied Bengali book of nonsense
Chichester Fortesque Dante Gabriel Rossetti, levels delves into language poems.
(Member of Parliament Lockwood Kipling in Bom- and landscape, imperial JAYATI GUPTA

MARCH 2024 EDUCATIONWORLD 81